


Waiting and Learning

by otherhawk



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Bonding, Fluff, Gen, Humor, Mentor Relationship, Mission Fic, jedi lineage
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-08
Updated: 2019-09-08
Packaged: 2020-10-03 22:43:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,955
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460713
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/otherhawk/pseuds/otherhawk
Summary: During a brief period of time when Ahsoka Tano is working with the 212th under Obi-Wan Kenobi, Ahsoka takes part in a mission to obtain separatist codes. Unfortunately the mission involves a lot of downtime without much entertainment as they wait for an ambush. Along the way Ahsoka gets to know her grandmaster better and makes some new friends.





	Waiting and Learning

**Author's Note:**

  * For [skatzaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/skatzaa/gifts).

> Hope you enjoy this! It was fun to write even though the action scene gave me a lot of trouble.

There were limits to Jedi patience, Ahsoka decided. And she’d passed those limits somewhere around the third day of sitting in the cargo hold of a half-buried freighter in the middle of an abandoned garbage-dump moon. Not only was she up-to-date with all her GAR paperwork, she had now got as far as reading three months ahead on her homework assignments. And there wasn’t enough room in here to do katas properly, and the entire system was a deadzone so she couldn’t even get on the holo-net, and she missed Skyguy and Rex and all her friends in the 501st. Master Obi-Wan and the 212th clones were great and all, but it wasn’t the atmosphere she was used to and she was bored.

“Anything?” she asked hopefully, flopping down next to Boil who was watching the scanner with a single-minded intensity that was impressive considering Waxer was standing behind him, touching-up his brother’s armour.

“Nope,” Boil answered flatly, drawing out the vowel sound. “Not a smuggler in the sky.”

She sighed loudly. “Isn’t it time for another patrol?” she suggested, looking over to where Master Obi-Wan and Cody were poring over a datapad. “I mean, there could be anything out there – smugglers, battle droids, krayt dragons…”

“We are supposed to be keeping a low profile,” Cody reminded her, but she could feel the change in atmosphere as the other six clones on board suddenly perked up. Trooper patience had its limits too. “If they know anyone is here they won’t even land.”

“On the other hand,” Master Obi-Wan said cheerfully, his eyes twinkling. “If we’re all eaten by an unexpected krayt dragon there won’t be anyone left to complete the mission.”

“Are there any krayt dragons around here, sir?” Boomer asked eagerly.

Master Obi-Wan shook his head. “Definitely not.”

“Let’s not tempt fate,” Cody said with a groan, looking sideways at Master Obi-Wan as though he didn’t trust a krayt dragon not so suddenly materialise just to spite him.

“Alright, let’s have a quick patrol,” Obi-Wan said, looking around the freighter as if to check who was feeling the most claustrophobic. “Ahsoka, Boomer, Lacey, Tabe – with me.”

The sense of relief lasted about as long as it took for the airlock to open before Ahsoka remembered the terrible smell of this garbage dump and quickly put a sleeve over her face before she gagged. It was alright for the troopers, they were all wearing armour, and the smell didn’t seem to bother Master Obi-Wan at all.

He caught her eye and smiled sympathetically. “Do you remember the exercise you use to filter out poisons and contaminants? Try that except focus on your breathing instead.”

She tried and struggled for a moment, finding it impossible to concentrate on breathing when she was trying to do anything to avoid breathing.

“Here, allow me,” he said, extending a metaphorical hand of Force presence and she gratefully took it and let him walk her through it. “It’s a very useful technique. I find I most often use it at formal events – all the perfumes tend to give me a migraine.”

“Hey, I get that too,” she said with a sympathetic wince. “The perfume that Padme used to wear was really bad, but she noticed and changed it for me.”

“Unfortunately not everyone in the galaxy is as thoughtful as Senator Amidala. Now. Shall we?”

The clones had already gone ahead, splitting up into pre-designated routes. She stuck with Master Obi-Wan, taking the patrol that involved crossing large chasms and jumping up the side of a ruined ship. It was fun, and it meant she got to stretch her legs and actually burn off some energy. Plus she actually managed to talk Obi-Wan into racing down the last stretch, even if he did reach out and slow her fall at the end. “Hey, no fair,” she said indignantly.

“Please try to be more careful, padawan,” he said with a long-suffering sigh. “I really don’t want you to get hurt. For one thing if I returned you to Anakin with a broken leg I would literally never hear the end of it.”

She was about to argue that she could have caught herself perfectly fine, when there was a sudden scrabbling of movement out of the corner of her eye. Lightsabers in hand she took a step towards it, only to almost fall over as a small lizard-thing hopped out from beneath a pile of plastic and jumped eagerly towards her. Laughing, she reached out a hand towards it – it seemed friendly enough. “Hey there little guy.”

“A gizka,” Obi-Wan identified, a smile in his voice, as she managed to pet its head, rubbing over the blue stripe across its nose. It seemed to like it, judging by the chirping. “They’re harmless enough, though I wouldn’t have expected to see one here.”

“Yeah, there can’t be much to eat on this dump, can there? Are you hungry, little guy?”

“Here.” He held out a broken piece of ration bar to her, and she took it, offering it to the gizka who slurped it up eagerly and made a little chirping noise, head cocked to the side, looking for more.

“Awww,” she crooned, taking another piece and handing it over. “Here you go.”

Master Obi-Wan glanced up at the sky. “It’s getting late. We’d best get back. Come along, padawan.”

“Sure thing, Master Obi-Wan,” she said cheerfully, scrambling back to her feet. “And, um, thanks for this.”

“Of course.”

They headed back to the ship. And if Ahsoka caught sight of a little figure hopping along in their wake, well. Where was the harm in that?

*

Two days later and there were around a dozen gizka gathered around the ship. Cody was furious, Ahsoka could practically see the steam coming out of his helmet. “Alright, hands up everyone who fed the gizka?”

She nervously put her hand up. Looking around she could see that Waxer, Lacey, Boomer, Elsewhere and Master Obi-Wan had all raised their hands as well.

It was the latter that Cody was looking at. “Really, general?”

He just raised an eyebrow. “I find it hard to believe you’re surprised, commander.”

“Oh, I’m not surprised, sir. Just disappointed.” She had to work hard not to giggle at the long-suffering note in Cody's voice.

“The gizka would appear to be thoroughly distributed across this moon. I don’t think that their presence will alert the smugglers in any way. Of course if they’re upsetting you, I could always ask them nicely to go away.”

Huh. She had always assumed it was only Skyguy that brought out Master Obi-Wan’s bitchy side. She tried to conceal her smile by concentrating hard on her sabaac hand. Apparently learning to cheat at sabaac was a vital Jedi skill that Anakin had been remiss in not teaching her before. She’d been a little worried since the Jedi version of cheating obviously involved the Force, but Waxer had cheerfully told her that the other half of this lesson involved Master Obi-Wan teaching them how to block Force users out of their minds, before offering her some candy with a sage “Never assume that the General is only doing one thing at a time.”

“I’ve got something,” Boomer exclaimed, interrupting Cody’s lecture. “There’s a ship coming in.”

“Heading?” Obi-Wan asked, moving swiftly across the ship to stand behind him.

“Straight for the airfield, sir. These are our scumbags, got to be.”

“Alright. Let them land. Remember we need them to pick up the data.”

She nodded, even as she and everyone else was gearing up. These smugglers were picking up codes to get through separatist blockades, but the Republic analysts hadn’t been able to crack the cipher they were using. Their best plan had been to ambush the smugglers after they’d picked up and translated the new code but before they’d input it into their navcomp. It was a mission with very precise timing requirements, which was why they were all crowded, breathless around the door, waiting.

Eventually Master Obi-Wan gave the signal and they moved out, keeping low and spread out as they headed towards the smugglers ship. She mentally shushed the gizka that bounced around her feet, before scrambling along a ridge, following closely behind Waxer and Boil.

The smuggler ship had landed right where they’d been expecting it to – there was a clearing in the rubble that had seen obvious use as an airfield. It even had some navigation lights set up. Evidently they were assuming that no one was going to be able to track them this far. Ahsoka wasn’t exactly sure how Master Obi-Wan had, except that it had apparently involved Hondo Ohnaka, a fathier and some counterfeit credit chips.

Slipping inside the ship was surprisingly easy – she knew stealth had been the plan, but somehow she’d still been expecting explosions. Must just be she’s too used to the 501st, and Anakin…actually, now she came to think of it she preferred the more explosive direct route as well. Not that it wasn’t fun to see the look on the smuggler’s faces when they tried to take the datachip out of the computer and it flew straight out of their hands and into Master Obi-Wan’s.

“You’re surrounded,” he told them. “Put down your weapons and come quietly.”

They didn’t. She didn’t know what they were thinking; there was only three of them. They were outnumbered and surrounded, and they couldn’t possibly win, but it didn’t seem to matter. One threw himself at Master Kenobi and was knocked out immediately. Another drew a blaster and started firing immediately, while the third made a rush for the exit.

She was closest and she moved fast, ducking behind him and holding her lightsaber to his neck. “Don’t move,” she said in a low voice. “Drop your blaster.” He did. He was shaking and she could see beads of sweat gathering around his collar. She held back a shudder; he was just a person. Not a Sith or a battledroid or even a slaver. He was just a person and he was terrified of her.

Another blaster shot rang out and a scream of pain pierced right through her skull and the Force. She turned to see the last remaining smuggler lying on the ground, blood bubbling out between his lips and where his fingers were pressed close to his chest. His head had flopped to the side and he was looking at her, his eyes wide and pleading.

She was moving before she even thought about it, dropping to her knees beside him, putting pressure on the wound with one hand while desperately searching through her belt pouches with the other for her medkit.

The Force screamed out a warning and she felt strong hands grabbing her shoulders, hauling her to the side as another blaster shot split the air. She yelled and pulled away and turned only to see the man on the ground dropping his blaster, his eyes unseeing, while Master Obi-Wan – still holding onto her shoulders – rubbed at the smoking hole in his armour. The smoking hole in his armour that was exactly where her head had been a moment ago. Oh.

“Are you alright, Ahsoka?” Obi-Wan asked as she shakily stood up.

She nodded a couple of times. “Yes,” she said, feeling her face grow hot, because that had been a stupid mistake.

“Always check an enemy for weapons before administering aid,” Cody said roughly, and it would have felt more like a reprimand if she couldn’t hear the sharp edge of worry in his voice. “You’re not a shiny anymore, Commander, you know this.”

She did. It had been a mistake. A stupid mistake. But he’d looked at her and he’d been hurt and scared and she had just – reacted.

“Where’s the other one gone?” Waxer asked suddenly.

She turned around and saw the smuggler she’d disarmed had vanished. He must have ran for it when she took her eyes off him. As if this day couldn’t get any worse. “Um, I hadn’t restrained him,” she admitted.

“Neither had anyone else,” Master Obi-Wan pointed our, stroking his beard. “Don’t worry, he won’t get far.”

He didn’t.

They found him as soon as they left the ship, sprawled headlong on the ground, surrounded by forty or so gizkas happily hopping around him.

“He must have tripped over them,” Boil said, his tone wondering.

She felt a smile tugging at the corners of her mouth. “I guess we were right to feed them after all, huh,” she said, holding out a ration bar to the one she'd first befriended.

*

She sat on top of a wrecked cruiser looking down towards their freighter, not quite ready to get back aboard yet. They were counting on no Republic ships being seen in this system to give the game away so it was going to be a long journey back to the Negotiator. Particularly now they'd have two prisoners on board as well. She couldn't say she was looking forward to it.

That wasn't what had her so on edge though, she couldn't stop thinking about how scared of her the smugglers had been, and how even when he'd been dying, even when she'd been trying to help him, that man had still tried to kill her. It made her wonder, sometimes, just what the Jedi looked like to outsiders.

“Are you alright, Ahsoka?” She hadn't heard or sensed Obi-Wan approaching.

She gave him a small smile. “I'm fine.”

He settled down beside her. “That's what everyone says when they're in the middle of a crisis and trying to hide it. Anakin used to yell 'I'm fine' and then slam the door hard enough that I swear the entire Temple shook.”

She chuckled slightly. “I _am _fine though, I just...I'm sorry about today. I screwed up and let you down.”

He shook his head. “You made a mistake, as everyone does from time to time,” he said. “What matters is that no one was hurt as a result of it and you learned from it. You won't make the same mistake going forwards.”

“No,” she said with a groan. “I'll find entire new ways to screw up.” She was never going to be ready for her trials at this rate.

“Can I tell you a secret, padawan?” he said, leaning towards her with a gentle smile. “From a certain point of view, everyone's life is a series of screw ups. Everyone sometimes feels like they're just stumbling from one mistake to another, trying their best to make amends.”

“That's...not exactly comforting, Master Obi-Wan,” she said, her mouth hanging open.

“Perhaps not,” he conceded. “But mistakes are part of the way we learn. Someone who never made mistakes, who never even considered the possibility that they might be wrong, would be someone with no way to grow. And I, for one, find that sad. Perfection might be what we strive for, but it's an ideal, not a concrete goal. And Ahsoka?”

She looked at him, and his eyes were warm.

“Your compassion today does you credit. I was exceptionally proud of you, and I will be telling Anakin.”

“Oh!” She blinked a couple of times, and then found herself leaning her head against his arm and confessing. “I didn't...it wasn't a conscious decision. He was just so afraid and in so much pain, I couldn't help it.”

“That's very understandable,” he said, squeezing her shoulder. “We have been fighting battle droids a lot. It's easier when there's no emotions to sense than when you're fighting people just like you who've made mistakes of their own.”

She tilted her head to look up at him. “Does everyone feel like that then?”

“To some degree.” He sighed and for a moment his eyes were far away. “It is, sadly, something that one gets used to rather quickly. Nevertheless, Ahsoka, I hope you decide to hold onto your compassion.”

“I'll try, master,” she said earnestly, and then winced. “I mean, there is no try, so I will.”

He smiled, his eyes twinkling. “Perfection is an ideal, not a concrete goal. Try all you like, just not in Master Yoda's hearing, perhaps. And _please_ don't tell him I said that.”

“It's a deal,” she grinned. “Although....you said that perfection isn't the goal, but everyone says that you were the perfect padawan.”

For a moment she was afraid she'd been too impertinent as he stared at her for a moment before doubling over, making a strange choking noise. Then she realised it was laughter. “I most certainly was _not,_” he said, gasping for words. “Who in the world has been telling you such lies? Was it Vos? My days as a padawan were marked by a serious of egregious mistakes and ridiculous disasters.” He stood up and extended his hand. “Come on, let's head back to the ship and I'll tell you a few stories. Carefully chosen, of course. I don't want you to lose all respect for me.”

She didn't think that was possible, but she took his hand and bounced to her feet and followed him back to the ship, feeling immeasurably more at peace.

*

The stories were everything promised and Ahsoka and the clones were entranced. Master Obi-Wan was just embarking on a story about how he and Master Vos had almost drowned each other during meditation practice when a faint scuffling sound came from somewhere deep in the hold.

Everyone froze.

Cody was the first on his feet, blaster in hand as he looked over. He froze, before turning back to face them all. “Alright,” he said, his voice low and dangerous. “Hands up everyone who smuggled a gizka on board the ship.”

Oh dear.

  


  


  



End file.
